Most intense hailstorm on record

Masterton residents are still mopping up after a freak thunderstorm bombarded half of the town and left the other half completely unscathed. The Greater Wellington District Council recorded 32mm of rain and hail in less than an hour on Sunday afternoon between 4pm and 5pm ? the most intense hail storm on record in the town.
Hydrologist Mike Gordon said the storm was "off the scale" as far previous records were concerned. "There is nowhere where the drains are designed to cope with that," he said.
While one of the rain gauges at the regional council offices on Chapel Street recorded 22mm of rain in 10 minutes, the other gauge at Wairarapa College registered just 2mm rainfall.
The storm cut clean though Masterton with residents on the west side of town reporting that the hail and rain missed them entirely.
A man in Ngaumutawa Road said he could hear the hail raining down on the buildings on the other side of the road, but his side of the street stayed relatively dry.
Elsewhere, signs were ripped off their mounts and houses and businesses were overrun with flash flooding.
A raging torrent appeared at the top of Lansdowne Hill due to runoff from the golf course, washed through a house on Boltons Road and lifted a car of the ground and had the vehicle bobbing in the driveway. The stream of water continued down the hill through properties on Konini Street and Tawa Street.
Konini Street resident Tom Hullena said his daughter woke him up from a nap and told him that there was a river flowing down his driveway.
"It was carrying huge pieces of debris and rocks down with it to Tawa Street," he said. Much of his driveway was washed away and a shed was moved across his yard by the torrent.
Boltons Road residents said they had talked to the council in the past about drainage issues on the street. The main cause of flooding was hailstones that blocked drains, leaving debris littering the streets.
Five fire engines were called out as emergency services received several calls from concerned residents about the flooding. A back-up fire truck and crew came from Carterton to help.
The thunderstorm disappeared as quickly as it came, leaving many streets to slowly drain.
The pea-sized hailstones were smaller than the hailstorm of January 2001, but the larger volume caused them to pile up and block the flow and float down the street like small icebergs.
Police said there were no major incidents stemming from downpour, but they did have to rescue a couple of people who were caught out by the intensity of the thunderstorm.
An elderly woman on her mobility scooter got stranded when the waters rose and started coming on board. Her battery cut out and the police had to load the scooter on to a 4WD vehicle and drive her to safety. They also came to the aid of a man in a wheelchair who found himself in a similar predicament.